KRISTEN IRWIN
HTTP://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/KRISTENIRWIN/
BIOLA UNIVERSITY • DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
13800 BIOLA AVENUE • LA MIRADA, CA 90639
1.562.944.0351 x3244 •
Areas of specialization
Early Modern Philosophy; Philosophy of Religion
AReAS OF COMPETENCE
Existentialism and Phenomenology; Ethical Theory; Humanities (Ancient and Modern)
Employment
Biola University, Assistant Professor (August 2009 – present)
University of California, San Diego, Instructor (March 2006 – December 2008)
education
University of California, San Diego
Ph.D., philosophy, March 2010
M.A., philosophy, May 2005
Hillsdale College
B.A. magna cum laude, May 2001
Majors: philosophy, history (concentration: 20th century Europe)
Minor: French
dissertatioN
“The Core Mysteries: Pierre Bayle’s Philosophical Fideism”
Chair: Donald Rutherford
I offer an original interpretation of Pierre Bayle's position on the relationship between philosophical reason and religious belief that fills the gap between the two most influential interpretations of Bayle: the hyper-skeptical fideist interpretation on the one hand, and the critical rationalist interpretation on the other. By developing a new understanding of Bayle's conception of reason, and by uncovering the theological framework of Bayle's Calvinist rationalism, I create a complete picture of Bayle's thought that I call "philosophical fideism." I then demonstrate how this novel interpretation provides a better grounding for Bayle's account of religious toleration than any of the other interpretations currently on offer.
PUBLICATIONS
“La foi et la croyance chez Pierre Bayle,” Doxa: Études sur les formes et la construction de la croyance, ed. Pascale Hummel (2010)
“Le rejet de la position ‘conciliatrice’ dans les Éclaircissements de Bayle,” Les Eclaircissements de Pierre Bayle: Edition des "Eclaircissements" du Dictionnaire historique et critique et études recueillies, eds. Hubert Bost and Antony McKenna (2010)
“La philosophie comme méthodologie: la conception sceptico-rationaliste de la raison chez Bayle,” Kriterion: Revista de Filosofia (Vol. L:120; 2009)
honors & awards
Biola University
Faculty Development Teaching Release for “Female Faculty & the Family”
University of California, San Diego
Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Research Award ($3,000) (2008-2009)
Center for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship (Spring 2007)
Philosophy Department Dissertation Fellowship (Fall 2006; Winter 2007; Fall 2007)
Philosophy Department Graduate Student Travel Grants
(2004-2005; 2005-2006; 2006-2007; 2007-2008; 2008-2009)
UC Paris Study Center Appointment, Graduate Student Instructor (Fall 2005)
Philosophy Department Graduate Student Essay of the Year (2004-2005)
“Bayle seulement philosophe? Challenging Gianluca Mori’s Interpretation of Bayle”
Hillsdale College
Alvin B. Jordan Scholarship for Studies in Philosophy (2000-2001)
presentations and conferences
“Which ‘Reason’? Bayle on the Intractability of Evil”
“Pierre Bayle & the Problem of Evil” Workshop, Notre Dame September 2010
“Reason & Faith in Bayle’s Doctrine of the Erring Conscience”
Philosophy of Religion Group Meeting, Pacific Division APA March 2010
“Epistemic Authority & Certainty in Bayle’s Conception of Religious Belief”
Natural Religion Group Meeting, Pacific Division APA March 2010
“Bayle’s Qualified Academic Skepticism”
Southern California Philosophy Conference November 2009
“La philosophie comme méthodologie: la conception sceptico-rationaliste de la raison chez Bayle” (invited speaker)
Biola University April 2009
Eastern Illinois University January 2009
Pierre Bayle : historien et critique de la philosophie October 2008
(Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
UCSD History of Philosophy Roundtable October 2008
“Corrosive Reason and Epistemic Immunity: Pierre Bayle on Reason and the Mysteries”
UCSD History of Philosophy Roundtable November 2007
“Le rejet de la position ‘conciliatrice’ dans les Éclaircissements de Bayle”
Colloque de l’Association Pierre Bayle (Paris, France) November 2006
“Pierre Bayle’s Rejection of Accommodationism”
3rd Biennial Margaret Dauler Wilson Conference June 2006
“Bayle seulement philosophe? Challenging Gianluca Mori’s Interpretation of Bayle”
University of South Florida Early Modern Philosophy January 2006
Conference (Abridged Version of Paper)
UCSD History of Philosophy Roundtable May 2005
“ ‘True’ Kantian Pluralism”
Evangelical Philosophical Society National Meeting November 2004
Talbot School of Theology Philosophy Club May 2004
Midsouth Philosophy Conference February 2003
UCSD History of Philosophy Roundtable February 2003
“Definimagism: Kant’s Synthesizing Account of Concepts”
UCSD Graduate Philosophy Roundtable April 2004
“Heidegger’s Transcendental Phenomenology”
Southern California Philosophy Conference October 2003
UCSD History of Philosophy Roundtable October 2003
teaching and research experience
Courses Taught as Primary Instructor
Philosophy 415 (Biola) – Existentialism (Fall 2010)
Philosophy 413 (Biola) – Ethical Theory (Spring 2010)
Philosophy 350 (Biola) – Seminar for Majors: Bernard Williams’ Truth & Truthfulness (Fall 2009)
Philosophy 214 (Biola) – Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011)
Philosophy 104 (UCSD) – The Rationalists (Fall 2008)
Philosophy 185 (UCSD) – Philosophy of Religion (Summer 2008)
Philosophy 181 (UCSD) – Existentialism (Summer 2006 & 2007)
Philosophy 33 (UCSD) – Philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment:
Introduction to Berkeley, Hume, and Kant (Spring 2006)
Visiting Lecturer
The UCSD Osher Lifelong Learning Institute – “Philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment: Establishing the Empirical Method” and “Spinoza, Leibniz, & Voltaire” (Spring 2008)
Humanities 5 – “Simone de Beauvoir: Existentialism and Gender”
(Summer 2006, 2007, & 2008)
Philosophy 185 – “Kierkegaard and Robert Adams” (Winter 2007)
Courses Assisted as Graduate Student Instructor
Philosophy in the Streets: 1968 and After
Humanities 5: Modern Culture
Humanities 4: Enlightenment & Romanticism
Humanities 3: Renaissance & Reformation
Humanities 2: Rome, Christianity, & the Middle Ages
Humanities 1: Ancient Greece and Israel
Biomedical Ethics
Origins of Modern Philosophy
Ethics & Society
Logic & Decision Making
Courses Assisted as a Reader
Paris: Past and Present
Research Experience
Biola Faculty Development Project: “Female Faculty & the Family”
Dissertation Research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Fall 2005)
Research Assistant to Donald Rutherford:
Summer 2005 Editorial assistant for The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (2006)
Summer 2004 Partial translation of Pierre Charron’s De La Sagesse
professional memberships
American Philosophical Association
Society of Christian Philosophers
Society for Women in Philosophy
Evangelical Philosophical Society
Institutional & professional service
Biola University
Humanities & Social Sciences Divisional Representative, School of Arts & Sciences Steering Committee (2010-2011)
University of California, San Diego
Graduate Student Representative to Philosophy Faculty (2002-2003)
American Philosophical Association
2011 Pacific Meeting: Chair, “Context & Skeptical Theism”
2005 Pacific Meeting: Chair, “Against a Psychologistic Reading of Descartes”
2004 Pacific Meeting: Chair, “Origins of Otherness: A Juxtaposition of Simone de Beauvoir and Emmanuel Lévinas”
languages
French: reading, writing, speaking
German: reading
Latin: reading
References
Donald Rutherford University of California, San Diego
Hubert Bost École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, La Sorbonne
Thomas Lennon University of Western Ontario
Eric Watkins University of California, San Diego
Gregg Ten Elshof Biola University
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